Africa May Leapfrog Traditional Banking - page 2.

ensurance982

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Quote from: shogdite on April 10, 2015, 09:52:11 AM

Quote from: solitude on April 09, 2015, 10:03:36 PM

Africa may leapfrog...

That would be cool, except most Africans are still living in huts and flinging shit at each other.

Wow that's a fairly ignorant statement, I take it you're trolling?

http://www.zdnet.com/article/africa-has-more-mobile-phone-users-than-the-us-or-eu/

Exactly, Bitcoins can be transferred by transferring information. Bitcoins are nothing else, basically, i.e. transferring them takes nothing but transferring certain information. Mobile phones are a perfect fit for that.

QuestionAuthority

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Africa needs to leapfrog a way to grow enough food eat instead of having 30 countries supplement their diets. While they're at it maybe they can figure out how to grow some birth control so they won't need so much food. Bitcoin would be great for them to store their fifteen cents of disposible income per month.

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Quote from: bryant.coleman on April 10, 2015, 11:45:44 AM

Quote from: SpanishSoldier on April 10, 2015, 07:34:14 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on April 10, 2015, 07:28:34 AM

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

That is not necessary. They don't need to know these skills to use BTC. For example, currently a lot of African migrants use Western Union to transfer their remittances. That doesn't mean that all of them know the basics of the money transfer system. All they need to know is how to deposit cash at M-Pesa branches. M-Pesa will convert this cash to BTC and send them to Africa. In Africa, M-Pesa will convert this BTC back to cash and give it to the recipient.

It sound really simple and affordable. But I remember some threads like this: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/why-is-africa-stuck-in-the-stone-age-897306 And I wonder if they in Africa really ready for bitcoin if they have more pressure concerns right now? I would like them to be able to reach out and embrace cryptocurrency but I feel that it is indeed to early for some African countries.

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Quote from: SpanishSoldier on April 10, 2015, 07:34:14 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on April 10, 2015, 07:28:34 AM

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

That is not necessary. They don't need to know these skills to use BTC. For example, currently a lot of African migrants use Western Union to transfer their remittances. That doesn't mean that all of them know the basics of the money transfer system. All they need to know is how to deposit cash at M-Pesa branches. M-Pesa will convert this cash to BTC and send them to Africa. In Africa, M-Pesa will convert this BTC back to cash and give it to the recipient.

M83

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Quote from: hua_hui on April 10, 2015, 10:01:26 AM

I don't think they can leapfrog traditional banking. If they can't access the banking, how can they buy or cash out bitcoin through the exchanges, which accept fiat money deposits for them to trade or transfer fiat money to your bank account for withdrawal?

Well that's where bitcoin comes in. They buy bitcoin with regular cash or get paid it for work or sent from their families via the remittance market. There will be independent businesses that will pop up like mpesa and others than will exchange coins for cash when needed.

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Quote from: hua_hui on April 10, 2015, 10:01:26 AM

I don't think they can leapfrog traditional banking. If they can't access the banking, how can they buy or cash out bitcoin through the exchanges, which accept fiat money deposits for them to trade or transfer fiat money to your bank account for withdrawal?

Swap it for M Pesa? There's already a parallel economy operating with that. BTC would run alongside it. There could be a huge volume of bitcoin exchange and cashing in and out without any of it ever touching a bank.

The question is whether it would be relevant to the average M Pesa user. Probably not that much in country, but there would be international applications.

hua_hui

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I don't think they can leapfrog traditional banking. If they can't access the banking, how can they buy or cash out bitcoin through the exchanges, which accept fiat money deposits for them to trade or transfer fiat money to your bank account for withdrawal?

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Quote from: coinpr0n on April 09, 2015, 05:53:25 PM

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

Yeah as far as I know there was an option already to use the blockchain throught SMS messages, this is pretty huge and benefits tons of less fortunate than us people out there.

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Quote from: solitude on April 09, 2015, 10:03:36 PM

Africa may leapfrog...

That would be cool, except most Africans are still living in huts and flinging shit at each other.

Wow that's a fairly ignorant statement, I take it you're trolling?

http://www.zdnet.com/article/africa-has-more-mobile-phone-users-than-the-us-or-eu/

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Quote from: SpanishSoldier on April 10, 2015, 07:34:14 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on April 10, 2015, 07:28:34 AM

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

I think you're being pretty ignorant here. Africa is a massive continent and contrary to popular belief they don't all live in mud huts with no electricity. Even many impoverished African countries have a mobile phone but don't and can't have a bank account so bitcoin could really flourish over there. The internet isn't as scare as you might think either and is being implemented there at an astonishing rate.

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Quote from: countryfree on April 10, 2015, 08:40:18 AM

There will always be banks. Most people need a credit to buy their home.

So the people that have no bank accounts have no house. I like that logic.
It's obvious that banks can't be removed, at least not easily or quickly.

Quote from: IIOII on April 10, 2015, 08:51:23 AM

I disagree. I think the key is to offer more simple Bitcoin services that do not rely on internet & smart phones but on SMS service instead.
The problem is not that African people are not educated to use smart phones the problem is that simple cell phones are cheaper and more readily available (also in terms of infrastructure).

Exactly how do you plan on doing that? If we start adapting Bitcoin to old technology we aren't going in the right direction. Yes we need to make simpler services, but not in that way.
We should be pushing forward, not backwards. Africa has so much potential. The question is: is anyone going to do something about it?

Note: There is a smartphone that costs $29.

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Quote from: SpanishSoldier on April 10, 2015, 07:34:14 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on April 10, 2015, 07:28:34 AM

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

I disagree. I think the key is to offer more simple Bitcoin services that do not rely on internet & smart phones but on SMS service instead.

The problem is not that African people are not educated to use smart phones the problem is that simple cell phones are cheaper and more readily available (also in terms of infrastructure).

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There will always be banks. Most people need a credit to buy their home.

SpanishSoldier

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Quote from: bryant.coleman on April 10, 2015, 07:28:34 AM

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

bryant.coleman

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When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Oscilson

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These people can use bitcoin for p2p payment without the banking service. However, if they want to use bitcoin for daily purchasing with instant confirmation, they need a centralised banking card (or equivalent such as both the purchaser and vendor have coinbase account) service. This banking could be different from traditional banks.

coinpr0n

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Quote from: tatu on April 10, 2015, 03:05:34 AM

Quote from: coinpr0n on April 09, 2015, 05:53:25 PM

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

I think it could take a while but bitcoin really has the potential to catch on in Africa with the unbanked and the remittance market. The potential and benefits of bitcoin is clear so I just hope it catches on. I'm sure Nigerian/Ghanian scammers will also take advantage of it soon. There's actually a whole subculture of scammers over there. It's quite bizarre. Check out this short Vice documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o26Eks801oc

An interesting watch, indeed. There was a BBC documentary too that looked at Nigerian scammers - I'm also sure they will use Bitcoin to scam. Remittances is still where I see the most opportunity. I suppose "agents" would have to be trained if it were to be done the Western Union way or else a whole new system would need to be developed?

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Quote from: coinpr0n on April 09, 2015, 05:53:25 PM

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

I think it could take a while but bitcoin really has the potential to catch on in Africa with the unbanked and the remittance market. The potential and benefits of bitcoin is clear so I just hope it catches on. I'm sure Nigerian/Ghanian scammers will also take advantage of it soon. There's actually a whole subculture of scammers over there. It's quite bizarre. Check out this short Vice documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o26Eks801oc

zircon

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M-Pesa is certainly a cool and functional concept, but within the realm of countries and governments its scalability folds mostly due to political and financial pressures. This is where Bitcoin comes in - it crosses borders whether government and financial institutions like it or not.

If this fact and its low transaction fees are a value proposition then it will succeed. If not, then it will fail and the Universe will keep looking for a better solution than the current one. Same with Bitcoin. If it succeeds then more efficient methods will be sought, eventually one will be found and that will replace Bitcoin too.

You can delay nature, but ultimately, you cannot deny it.

coinpr0n

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Africa does have some well-connected, highly developed cities where mobile phones and internet access are common. Africans have been exposed to technologies like M-Pesa and Bitcoin could also be within their reach. None of this 'Bitcoin takesover Africa' stuff, but I do see it having a rightful place there.

Topic: Africa May Leapfrog Traditional Banking - page 2. (Read 2190 times)